The Light
by AuroraFae
Summary: In all honesty, Klaus is no different than a man wanting to be accepted, wanting to be loved. With his brother killed at the hands of the Gilbert's, revenge is needed to satisfy the blood lust of Klaus, yet Klaus is not the villain of this scenario, What if it were Jermey? What if it was Damon? Can only Caroline see the good in Klaus? Set after 4x12 rated T for Language 1st fanfic
1. Chapter 1

"Elena, you killed an original? You killed the brother of the craziest vindictive bitch out there? You killed Klaus's brother? Tell me are you insane? Or do you just like the thought of eternal torture? Cause that's what Klaus w ill do when he finds you." I shout over the phone. I had left for only 5 days, left with Tyler to visit his grandparents. Now I come home to this, Mystic Fall's on the threshold of chaos and anarchy.  
"He won't be able to hurt us Caroline, Bonnie cast a spell, he's trapped in our living room for four days, and by then we would have found the cure"  
"And what happens when we find the cure Elena? We don't know what it is, how big it is, what if it only cures one vampire? Then all of this would have been for nothing. You need it, Stefan wants it, Rebekah wants it to use on Klaus, what's going to happen when we have to choose? And this Silas guy, what if he's real? That'll just be another Mikael we have to deal with"  
"We'll sort it out Caroline we always do" Elena as a vampire seems less smart than human Elena, is she seriously that blind? She signed our death warrants the minute she decided to kill Kol.  
"Well what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and wait until all hell breaks loose?"  
"We need you to decipher the runes on the Hunter's sword that Klaus dug up, it could be important"  
"Since when am I a translator? And those runes have to be over 700 years old!"  
"Find a way Caroline, we only have 3 days until the new Moon, when Klaus gets free and kills us all."  
At those words I hung up on her. Fury flamed through my body. Her ignorance is what will kill us, as mad as I am at Klaus, as much as he deserves sentence for his actions, he is not the villain in this scenario. Elena and Jeremy killed his younger brother right in front of his eyes; as he watched helplessly as his little brother caught fire with the white oak steak thrust through his heart, of course he wants revenge. Wouldn't Elena if it was Jeremy? Wouldn't Stefan if it were Damon? It seems like ever since Elena has become a vampire her protective instinct has overpowered her sense of reason, as if only that emotion had been heightened, compensating for other emotions which remain at human level.  
Klaus deserves no kindness, yet how could I somehow not feel sorry for him, the Mikaelson family is simply, in an understatement, dysfunctional. Their mother created vampires in her own children, only to then be killed by her son, invoking their father into promising a vow to kill them all. For over a millennia this family have fought and scraped for life, they've been together and they've been apart, yet they will always be family, and with family, there will always be love.

"Care…"  
"Tyler, hey" I say as he walks into the living room, bringing me back to reality  
"Are you alright? You looked kind of…out of it"  
"I'm fine. That was Elena, it seems while we were gone she decided to kill Kol" I say with a voice of disapproval  
"What? That's great finally give that son of a bitch Klaus a lesson"  
"He's trapped in the gilbert house for 3 days, then he can get out and kill us all"  
"Good, it'll give us even more motivation to kill him"  
"Elena, Bonnie and the guys are already on their way to the cure, but they need us to translate the runes on Klaus' sword. I can do it alone if you can't handle it"  
"No. You think I'd leave you alone with that sadistic barsted? No, I'm coming with you"  
That's what I was afraid of. Tyler was mad, Klaus had not just killed Tyler's mother he had killed the only family he had left in Mystic falls. He couldn't bear to leave this place, even after all the pain that had conspired here, like it or not, this place was home, with or without his mother.

If the thought of Klaus in the Gilbert house seemed odd to me then the sight of it was extremely odd. After almost a year of Klaus manipulative games and ploys, they had always avoided the inevitable situation of allowing Klaus to enter. Yet now, there he stood in the Gilbert living room right next to the picture of Jenna and Alaric, just two of his countless victims. Search his house became a failed attempt, if a vampire and a hybrid cannot find something in a house than it is not there, we had no choice but to go to Klaus.  
"Ah Tyler, and Caroline, now I must say I did expect Tyler, a gloating opportunity maybe, or perhaps, an attempt to kill me, but I didn't expect you Caroline" He spoke in his usual charming and confident British voice, yet his eyes were different, full of sorrow and sadness  
"Save it you son of a bitch, we're here to get the sword, now where is it?" Tyler spoke with pure venom in his words.  
"Now why would I ever tell you, twice you've tried to desiccate me now, once you actually succeeded, why would I tell you where the key to unlocking a cure for vampirism is when you're most likely going to use it on myself and then kill me huh?"  
"Don't tempt me"  
Tyler was trembling with anger, his muscles tense and his face red with anger.  
"Tyler you need to get out of here now" I say, pulling him out the front door as Klaus yells behind us  
"Yes Tyler go, before you suggest another idiotic suggestion"  
"Caroline what are you doing?"  
"You need to get out of here; Klaus is never going to tell us where the sword is if you're still here"  
"No way, Klaus is a pathological psychopath he'll kill you if he gets the chance!"  
"Tyler as much as I hate to admit it, he's not going to hurt me, I'm the only one that he's ever opened up too, this is our only chance"  
"Do you want to be alone with him?" he questions, stepping back and judging me from a distant  
"Don't be ridiculous, but you know this is the only way he'll talk" With a gruff and heavy sigh escaping his mouth he reluctantly agreed  
"Fine. You have your cell, call me every hour until he gives it up ok? I'm going to go search his house again, bye" Solidifying his goodbye with a peck on the cheek before speeding away. Turning back to the house I slowly walk back in.  
I don't know why Klaus seems so attracted to me, out of everybody in the world, all of the super models, rich girls and cultured women that he could have in an instant, why would he latch himself on to me? A small town girl who's never been anywhere. Was this a normal occurrence? Every couple of decades he'd stumble upon a girl who he seemed to like and woo her until she gave in? Perhaps, he of course, never stayed around, yet he's stayed around here, in Mystic Falls, even after my countless betrayals and distractions while my friends plan to kill him, it seems he still "fancies" me as he calls it. I'm sick of being the Klaus bait, I'm sick of everybody demanding me to play him.  
"Ah I see Tyler's gone, just you and me now love" His smile quickly enrages me.  
"Shut up! You don't get to be charming! Not after what you did to Mayor Lockwood" the smile quickly vanishes and a look of shame soon appears.  
"Look Caroline…"  
"Oh you're going to try and talk yourself out of this one? I hope your excuse is really good, you know just when I started to think you had changed, that you were capable of actual human feelings you go and kill someone, an innocent someone!" it was as if my thoughts over the past week came flying out of my mouth as shrapnel aimed at Klaus, ripping through him at full force, tearing him up and healing him at the same time. I'm not sure whether anybody's actually spoke the truth to Klaus, told him their real thoughts of him, everybody seems too scared of him, everybody except me.  
"I don't know what to say, I'm a barsted son rejected by the man I thought to be my father throughout my childhood with a mother who wants to kill me and siblings who hate me." His face now displayed the emotions I see in his eyes, sadness  
"I wanted to create the hybrids to accompany me, hybrids that would never leave me, hybrids that would protect me from the bitter years of lonely immortality, but it didn't work, they tried to kill me, so I killed them"  
"yah I know I was at the party when Hayley snapped my neck and stopped me from stopping Tyler" I say with my arms folded and my voice judging,  
"You tried to stop Tyler?" He says, looking up from his shameful glance to the floor  
"Yes. Look as bad as you are mostly all of the time, and as much as I hate to admit it you do have some good in you." I hate to admit a lot of my thoughts around Klaus, because thoughts are honest, and honestly, I barely saw a difference between Klaus and a man wanting to be accepted and loved.  
"I didn't plan on killing Carol, I liked her, but she was the closest thing to Tyler's heart except for you, I've killed so many people I don't even know what good is anymore, I'm not capable of good" he says through gritted teeth, the tortured soul that is Klaus shining through.  
"Of course your capable of good, everybody is" How could he think that? After the amount of time he's saved me?  
"Name one good thing I've done since I've arrived in Mystic Falls"  
"You've saved my life twice for one, why wpould you do that if you didn't have a hint of good in you?"  
"because I Fancy you"  
"and that's why I know your good, because you care about love and companionship, you don't want to be alone"  
A moment of silence passes, Klaus smiling to the floor, an enlightenment is tiring work.  
"I am sorry for killing the Mayor, truly I am"  
"Tyler won't care, that's not going to bring him mum back"  
"I don't care about what Tyler thinks of me Caroline, I've never cared about anyone's opinions, I could be the Ripper in their eyes and I wouldn't care, I just don't want you to see me like that"  
"Well I don't, But I'm still mad'


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for all the kind words guys, means a lot as this is my first fanfic! Will try to update at least once every two days!  
keep reading and tell me what you think!  
xx**

* * *

My emotions are torn.

Klaus had been genuine at the Pageant, opening up; a Klaus that I could actually tolerate was shining through that day. I was almost sad when Tyler told me of his plan to once again desiccate Klaus, sad that once again his potential to be kind would be drowned by the flood of rage that would most definitely ensue.  
On that day Tyler conveyed who his allegiances were with; his pack. I can barely blame him for that, he was a werewolf first, and a hybrid second. Yet I am still mad at him, mad at him for choosing people he had just met over his friends, over me.  
We needed Klaus to find the cure, to cure Elena, to cure Bonnie's mum, and now it seems to cure Rebekah, yet Tyler simply did not care about us, his only concerns were for his pack; his un-sired hybrid pack which he and Hayley put in danger by breaking the sire bond. He put us all in danger.  
Carol Lockwood was not my favourite of people, not after she captured me and told my father that I was a vampire. In some way I partly blame Carol Lockwood for my father's death, if she had not told him, he never would have come back to Mystic Falls, maybe he would be alive to watch me Graduate. As guilty as I feel for even thinking of it, I do partly think that Carol's death is due to his stupid decisions. I also blame myself, for not being fast enough, for not stopping Tyler, for distracting Klaus. Carol may have been dislikeable but she did not deserve to die.  
But she did die, and now I am all that Tyler has. With my emotions swallowed and my thoughts caged I have to continue to support him, even if he does not appreciate it.

Three hours had passed and I had not rung Tyler once, his attitude was fierce, angry at me for not following his orders, yet he never thought to ring me; he never thought to come back.  
I had just hung up when Klaus' cocky attitude returned.  
"Trouble in paradise?" he says looking up from his place on the floor, perched against a wall with a whisky bottle in his left hand.  
"He has every reason to be worried, you did kill his mum"  
"I told you…I am sorry about that." The look of shame has become a regular occurrence. Good, a sign of feelings in him.  
"I know you are, but we both know Tyler won't be happy until your dead"  
"I know, and that's exactly why I can't give you the sword" Somehow I knew he would say that, call it sixth sense, call it intuition, but Klaus will never open and become vulnerable until I also do the same. Together we must take a leap of faith in order to pursue our ambitions.

"Kol was the youngest brother wasn't he?" I could see from his flinch that I had touched on a sensitive subject. Successfully walking on eggshells had never been so important.  
"Yes he was, followed by Rebekah and Henrik"  
"why aren't you grieving? Why aren't you sad or angry? Or -"  
"Because grieving implies caring" he cuts in, the tears compacting in his eyes, the anger in his voice.  
"Don't. Don't do that, don't pretend you don't care. I know you care"  
"and how do you know that love?"  
"Because he was your brother, and no matter how much you bickered and fought. No matter how much you loathed him or how many years you kept him daggered in a box, he was still your little brother" There were tears in my eyes now, welling up yet not escaping. Quickly wiping them from my eyes I turn back to Klaus.  
"It sounds like you speak from experience…" he says, questioning my rant rather than disregarding it.  
After a moment of hesitation I spoke.  
"My dad, he died two months ago."  
"I thought your relationship with your father was perfect…that you let him go with no regrets…"  
"My father left us when I was 14 for another man; I lost my dad to him and his daughter. When I was human I was never close to my mother. I talked to my dad once a week growing up. I hadn't seen him in a year when he came back to Mystic Falls to torture me, to train me out of my vampire nature. Then he died. Killed by the alter-ego of Alaric, refusing to become a vampire" Another moment of silence passed while Klaus examined the hurt in my eyes. The emotions running through my body were on the verge of collision, ready to pour out in a river of tears.  
"He sounds like he doesn't deserve a daughter like you"  
"Yeah" I say holding back the tears "that's what I thought as well, I thought I hated him; I thought I would've been fine without him, but at the end of the day, he's still my dad, I still loved him. We had 14 years of wonderful memories; those memories outweigh all of the bad. The fact is, when someone you love dies, you never remember the bad stuff, it is always the love you felt for them that stays with you" I had never spoken about this with anyone, not Tyler, or Elena, even though they had both lost their parents, I didn't think they could understand how I felt. But now that I'm here, purging my most personal emotions and inner thoughts to Klaus of all people, I feel whole, as if the pain that my father had caused met was finally disintegrating, as if my body heart was waiting for this moment to heal.  
"I know how you feel, you feel guilty for not helping your brother, you felt helpless as you watched him die unable to do anything to stop it. You feel so many different emotions that you don't know how to process them all, so you've decided to not, to just not feel anything" I could tell that I was right, I was exactly the same.  
"Klaus you can't shut away your emotions, you'll never move on if you do"  
"and what makes you think I want to huh?" he snarls at me  
"after a thousand years of running alone, after three dead brothers what makes you think I want to move on?" taken aback by these words, I soon understood his feelings of helplessness, his inability to forgive had taken everyone that he cared for, Rebekah, Elijah, me, he thought of himself as completely alone, forever.  
"Because you have the whole world ahead of you, full of music and art, genuine beauty." using his own words from the night of my eighteenth birthday seemed appropriate, they had saved my life.  
"You are a fighter Klaus, you will get past this" At this he seemed to regain himself, as if he were remembering his love of life and culture.  
"Thank you Caroline".


	3. Chapter 3

Hey there, sorry it's been a while.  
I watched episode 4x13 tonight and I loved what Caroline said to Klaus, I had to use that quote (you know the one I'm talking about!).  
I have read a lot of fanfics lately where the characters seem to reflect a different personality then that in the television show, eg Caroline has no sass and Klaus has no attitude.  
I wanted to stay true to the characters portrayed personalities while also showing their vulnerability for each other in this chapter.  
I hope I did alright, tell me what you think!  
xoxo

* * *

I knew that in order to get close to Klaus I would have to reveal myself, expose myself to him, I was prepared for that; yet I was not prepared for this feeling of release.

Much like Klaus, I too had a tendency of bottling up my emotions, compacting them in my body until they unintentionally burst forth like a spring loaded coil, aimed at my next unwilling victim. Perhaps that is the answer to Klaus' violence; perhaps that could explain how he can be charming and charismatic one minute, and completely sociopath the next. I always thought of Klaus as pure evil, in fact he also thought of himself as evil also, yet as more layers of Klaus were slowing removed, it became quite clear, we are not so different after all.

"Caroline?" the touch of a hand on my shoulder spurred my inner instincts, the stranger was against the wall in a second, his neck pinned motionlessly by my hand, fangs bared.  
"Care it's - me" Tyler spluttered through his closed airway.  
"Tyler I'm so sorry, what are you doing here?" was he here to check on me? On Klaus? Or on Klaus and I? Was this a visit of good gesture? Or did he still not trust us alone?  
"Care it's Ten O'clock, time to come home" a quick glance towards Klaus and I could see he was going to enjoy the inevitable drama, pulling Tyler outside before I add to the conversation I soon say  
"Tyler I think I might stay here the night, I'll sleep in Elena's room"  
Why? His look of curiosity asked, as if his mind was trying to solve the scenario.  
"Do you not want to leave?" his minds answer slipping from his lips.  
"Care please tells me you're not falling for his B.S!"  
"No of course not" after all it wasn't bull.  
"Don't be like this Tyler, you know there's nothing going on"  
"Well it's getting harder and harder to believe Caroline" the feelings of betrayal echoed in his eyes, as if the hate he felt for Klaus was now reflecting onto me.  
"Tyler -" was all I could get out before he was gone  
"Tyler come back! -" Nothing, he was gone. Why does he continue to do this to me? refusing to communicate, as if he doesn't know how to communicate, as if he doesn't know how to be in a relationship. I hate this, I can't communicate with my own boyfriend yet I can quite easily reveal my deepest emotions to a man who is hated by everybody that I love? A man who I am supposed to hate? Life is cruelly humorous.  
"I take it Tyler isn't very happy?" Klaus utters as soon as I enter the dining room, still in his same spot against the wall, his bottle of whiskey now empty.  
"Can you blame him?" I reply, with a defeated, ironic sigh.  
"I can when he's acting like a lesser dog" he says with a glance to the side, and a roll of the eyes  
"you did just kill his mum remember" looking at him straight in the face, eyes raised and judge mentation flying towards him.  
"Why are you still here Caroline? Why didn't you go with him? After everything I've done…" He still doesn't understand.  
"Because your hurt" I say, still looking at him straight in the face, only now with no jokes, only the truth.  
"And if your hurt, then maybe there's a part of you that's still human" For once he is taken aback by what I say, for the first time he seems engaged and interested in my words. Shockingly, standing up and slowly coming towards me he then replies with a voice of perplexity.  
"How on earth could you possibly think that" seeming genuinely curious, his voice close to breaking.  
"Because I've seen it. I've caught myself trying to forget all of the terrible things that you've done" Tears were welling in his eyes, his refusal to release them only personified his arrogance and strength.  
"But you can't" honest disappointment holding his tears while his head bowed.  
"I know that you're in love with me" his head now up, the tears still welling, threatening to overpower his resolve.  
"And anybody who is capable of love, is capable of being saved" The truth in my words surprised even myself. With those last words I left for Elena's room to contemplate my words, I had given Klaus a choice; it was now his decision to make.

* * *

Sleep cleared my mind, yet all I dreamt of was Tyler disappointed, Tyler's betrayed eyes and Klaus' tears. The pain I caused one man and the hope I gave to another. If only the two weren't mutually exclusive. Walking into the kitchen was more of an ambush than an attempt to have breakfast. As soon as I was in sight Klaus spoke, hearing me from the moment I woke.

"Tell me Caroline, have you ever told anybody what you told me last night?" my hesitant moment of silence answered his question.  
"You know Caroline; I've been up all night trying to figure out why." His look was hard, wanting a straight answer, no jokes, no not answering the questions, just the truth.  
"Why did you tell me all of your personal thoughts? you hate me"  
"I don't hate you Klaus.' I thought those words were a lie, yet they were true, I believed them, and so did he.  
"I don't know why I told you, I just thought you might have understood"  
"I do. We are the same Caroline, beings of passion and uncertainty, forever wanting for things that are out of our reach"  
"We are kindred spirits Caroline. You know this, you feel it to"  
"Last night, you told me I was capable of being saved"  
"You have to want to be saved first Klaus"  
a huge sigh escaped his lips, as if he were fighting an internal war of thought. After what seemed like a decade of contemplation he pulled something from under his coat, a long object covered in white linen. The sword.  
"This is what you want." He says, taking the sword in his hands and admiring it with his eyes. Still looking at the sword whilst he talks.  
"For over a thousand years I have been alone, a slave to my own immortality, and cursed by my inability to empathise. I have never known love, and I have never loved until I met you Caroline. I have no intention of dying today or tomorrow, but I have every intention of waiting for you."  
What can I say? He's right, we are the same, we are both passionate and in need of love, but do I love Klaus? Do I want to be with him? He has caused my friends so much pain, he has hurt almost everybody I love in one way or another; shouldn't that hurt me? Shouldn't that effect my decision? Shouldn't that make me detest him? But yet I am still here, trying to help him, trying and succeeding to nurture "the light" in him as he once called it.  
"Klaus I-"  
"You don't have to say anything; I know you're not ready, I know I've hurt you, but I will earn your forgiveness. I will write my wrongs, and this is the beginning of that" he says as he passes the sword through the barrier to me.  
"Trust works both ways Caroline. I'm trusting that you will not allow your friends to kill me now that they have what they want from me" His eyes were clear, no lies, no Bull, the fog that once clouded his soul had lifted, the weight of pain and suffering gone. Klaus was true in his intentions, how could I allow this man to be killed?


End file.
